Into The Woods intertwines fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm: Cinderella (played by Anna Kendrick), Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood (with a wolf played by Johnny Depp). A new story, of a childless baker (James Cordon) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who must break a witch’s curse to have a child, is introduced as the glue to the story. To have a child, the couple must find a list of items for a Witch’s (Meryl Streep) potion: the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold. You can guess which item matches which of the other fairy tales that collide as the story progresses.

And the characters do, in fact, collide: in the woods. In fairy tales, particularly of the Grimm persuasion, the woods have typically been a symbol of inward struggle and moral learning. Those who enter the woods develop their character and learn who they are, while undergoing major life challenges. In Into The Woods, each character must enter the woods to get their wish. What they’re willing to do to get their wish is called into question.

The moral ambiguities in the woods dictate a movie musical that is distinctly un-Disney. It’s refreshing, in its way. More honest, no doubt, than the next adaptation of Cinderella which will also be brought to us by Disney in 2015. But it asks the question: how do we shape our moral understanding? And what happens when our understanding of the world goes from black and white to quite distinctly grey?

When even the Witch wants to hide her child from the wicked world, you know there’s something very, very wrong. The world of Into The Woods is painted grey. There are no good people and bad people; no right or wrong people. Witches are just like the rest of us. There is no absolute truth.

In the second act, happily ever after is not all as it was wished: a giant is raging havoc in the land and the characters are turning on each other as they grapple with what is the “right” thing to do.

The Witch is portrayed as a character set apart from the others, in power and world experience. But that experience has allowed her to see the evil and danger that exists in the world. She pleads with her daughter, Rapunzel, to hide from the world, to stay safe with her:

“Don’t you know what’s out there in the world / Someone has to shield you from the world / Princes wait there in the world, it’s true / Princes, yes, but wolves and humans too.”

But at a crucial moment, when the characters together face their biggest test in the woods, the Witch only sees futility and hopelessness. In her pinnacle song, Meryl Streep sings Last Midnight, pointing to the characters’ hypocrisy in trying to do right at last when they were so willing to blur the moral lines to get their own wishes.

If you’ve got memories of Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia, banish them. She’s nothing like that here. But it’s Emily Blunt who steals the show as the Baker’s Wife. She’s funny and emotionally engaging in an ensemble cast who all in all do very well with a demanding musical script.

But you only have to blink and you’ll miss the lyrical mastermind that is Stephen Sondheim. In fact, seeing the lyrics written out is possibly the only time you’ll truly appreciate their complexity and creativity. Accompanied by a Sondheim score that challenges the mainstream view of what makes a good Broadway showstopper, with its unpredictable harmonies and hard-to-hum melodies, the music in Into the Woods carries the viewer on a journey.

One of the biggest disappointments is that the movie version of the musical has cut out some of the more contemplative moments. Reprisals of key musical phrases have been cut for the sake of brevity, but it makes the longer set pieces feel a little out of the blue and slow, particularly Jack’s Giants in the Sky number.

One of the musical’s most touching songs, and one which served to wrap up some of the themes much more neatly than is done in the movie version – No More – sung by the Baker’s father has also been cut, to much uproar from fans. It’s absence makes the movie’s ending messier, without a full resolution.

From a Christian perspective, Into The Woods serves to highlight a world that has lost its compass. A world in which even the wishes of our fairy tales are built on ambition, greed and selfish desire, and even the most endearing characters try to grab hold of their dreams no matter the cost. It tackles big moral questions with the key aim to show that there is no right or wrong outcome. Just an outcome. And we must decide for ourselves what we believe and how we should act. You are not alone, sung by the Baker and Cinderella, to their young protégés, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack, passes on this sad worldly wisdom:

Cinderella: “Mother isn’t here now”

Baker: “Wrong things, right things”

Cinderella: “Who knows what she’d say?”

Baker: “Who can say what’s true?”

Cinderella: “Nothing’s quite so clear now.”

Baker: “Do things, fight things,”

Cinderella: “Feel you’ve lost your way?”

Baker: “You decide.”

The characters themselves, and the huge mistakes they make in their time in the woods, show us that that’s not a comforting conclusion.